Day 32. A song that plays to your inner hopeless-romantic.

“All Of Me” – John Legend

Y’know, I had this post all figured out until the Grammys came along and screwed everything up. I was all set to talk about Jim Croce’s “Time In A Bottle” which is about as good as a sappy hopeless-romantic songs as you get, and then John Legend plays “All Of Me” live and I had to scrap it. How dare he introduce me to such a pretty song and make me change my well-laid plans? The big jerk.

Actually, it’s probably for the best. It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote about another Jim Croce song and since my selections thus far have trended old, I needed a recent song to prove that I’m still relevant and hip.  Or something. (Just to show you how hip I am, I’d never even heard of John Legend before last year’s Grammys. At least I can still learn.)

While “Time In A Bottle” is mostly about stopping time and shutting out the world to spend every second with the one you love, “All Of Me” is more about sharing everything you have with the person you love. Not in a “hey, I just farted under the covers” sort of way. But in a “even when you’re being a little crazy or even when we fight, you’re still my soul mate” kind of way (which is much nicer sentiment than the first one, at least for most people).

Both songs are minimalist, with voice and very little instrumentation. These guys can pull this off, unlike some other people we know. They’re both “nice” songs and a bit sappy. And from time to time I like sappy and mooshy. I’m a romantic at heart, so these types of songs kinda get me right there. Big deal. You wanna fight about it? (Points if you get the reference.)

I do have to say, the album version of “All Of Me” doesn’t quite have the life of the version John Legend performed at the Grammys.There was a live recording available, too, but even that wasn’t quite up to par with the Grammys. I guess he just keeps getting better at performing it. At any rate, the album version does the job.

On a complete side note, I may need to reconsider my position on going to live shows. It seems like the music that has grabbed me the most lately are things that I’ve seen live (as in, they were being performed live, and not just on an album, even if it wasn’t me actually being there to see them live.) I’ll just have to keep weighing the pros and cons of this “being a shut-in” thing.

Okay, back to less sappy things now.

(Who else is impressed that I’ve made it to month #2 without missing a day? Cool huh? Give me time.)